Many distributed computing networks today are being implemented via a distributed virtual infrastructure, also referred to as a cloud infrastructure. The term “cloud” describes a collective computing platform that implements a cloud computing paradigm. For example, as per the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST Special Publication No. 800-145), cloud computing is a model for enabling ubiquitous, convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources (e.g., networks, servers, storage, applications, and services) that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort or service provider interaction.
Given the prevalence of the cloud computing paradigm in distributed computing networks today along with its on-demand capabilities, service providers are adding available cloud services to such networks on a daily basis. However, a problem that cloud service users have is how to gauge if a particular service is going to harvest privacy information or intellectual property and create a potential risk of exposure to the user or their company.